And how are consumers reacting?

According to the survey, 28 percent of those who have begun their holiday shopping this season indicated that social media has influenced their purchases. Of the types of specific social media cited, reading a consumer-generated product review was the most common form of social media that had influenced holiday purchases (13 percent of respondents), followed by an expert product review (11 percent). Seven percent of respondents indicated they have followed a fan page on Facebook to take advantage of special offers and deals, while 6 percent said they have been influenced by a friend’s Facebook status update referring to a particular product. Five percent of respondents indicated they had followed a company on Twitter to take advantage of special offers and deals, while 3 percent said that a friend’s “tweet” about a product influenced their purchase behavior.

So in the spirit of the holidays, here is a list of some interesting sites and apps to consider this holiday season:

1. Deals Plus on Facebook: gives popular items away daily (laptops, iPhones etc.).
2. Norad Santa: get up-to-the-minute information on Santa’s journey from Norad.
3. Social V-Cards from Pixorial: why send a boring pre-printed card with the typical mumbo jumbo when you can show your experiences through a v-card on Facebook, email or on a web site (disclosure: they are a client).
4. Holiday Music Downloads: Amazon has 25 days of free downloads in December.
5. Stream Holiday Music: go to Pandora and stream free holiday music by entering your family’s favorite artists.
6. Bad Santa on Twitter: you won’t get tips or deals but this tweet stream is sure to take the edge off. Caution, very inappropriate and may cause uncontrollable laughter.
7. ShopSavvy: Worried that you aren’t getting the best deal? This iPhone app allows you to scan the barcode of any item in a store and see prices online and from nearby retailers.
8. Patheos.com – Gets the Facts on Traditions: Curious where traditions came from? Check out Patheos.com, faith 2.0 site for information (disclosure: they are a client).
9. Need Twelp with those new gadgets? Contact Best Buy’s Twelpforce
10. Daily toy deals: ToysRUs is posting daily deals in its twitter stream, on Facebook and through a deal widget for mobile.
11. Staples daily deals and tech giveaway: follow tweets from Staple’s twitter team to learn about timely deals and enter to win a laptop or printer daily.
12. Fatwalletdeals: a twitter feed of top rated user contributed hot deals from the fatwallet.com shopping community.

Know of some more, feel free to share.